Apple Vs Samsung – We Had Sleepless Nights Too

Yesterday´s court session between the top two smartphone makers in the world was all about Samsung. After hearing Apple´s arguments, Samsung had their turn to present their own case, defending themselves from the accusations Apple has been hurling at them. Namely that they´ve slavishly copied the iPad and iPhone with full knowledge and without any sign of regret.

Throughout the trial, Samsung´s argument has often been that every company is inspired by one another, a characteristic that not even Apple is immune to. Samsung started off their argument by hurling a few of their own patent infringement allegations towards Apple, saying they´ve been using Samsung patents in their mobile devices for years.

These patents cover such mobile behaviors as displaying a picture directly in the body of an email and playing music in the background while the user goes off to do something else on the device.

Woodward Yang, a professor at Harvard University, took the stand to make the case that Apple has been infringing on these patents, which also include the smooth interface used on iOS devices to scroll through photographs.

After making his case, Apple´s legal team stepped up to cross examine Mr. Yang, saying that Samsung isn´t even using these patents in any of their current devices and should therefore not be held against Apple.

Next, Samsung called their senior user experience (or UX) designer Jeeyuen Wang to the stand. Speaking through an interpreter, Wang defended Samsung against Apple´s recent claims that the Galaxy maker even went so far as to lift the iPhone´s icons for use on their phones. When asked if Samsung had copied Apple´s icons, Wang replied, simply enough, “Not at all.”

According to Wang, Samsung had considered many different icons for the phone application on their first Galaxy phone, such as a cell phone or a smartphone. In the end, they chose a traditional handset (just as Apple had already done) feeling this icon better resonated with the consumers.

Next, Wang testified that Apple isn´t the only company with a sob story about how hard the company had to work to bring a phone to market. Last week, Scott Forstall had testified that he and his Purple Project team had spent many long nights and weekends together as they perfected the iPhone´s overall design and software.

According to Wang, Samsung, too, strives for excellent design, saying, “I slept perhaps two hours or three hours a night. That was about it.”

When cross-examined, Apple brought up the fact that Samsung had passed around internal documents detailing specific aspects of the iPhone, including icons and other UX choices. Wang responded by saying she had tried to make Samsung-specific icons and that any similarity between the two could simply be the product of good design.

Later in the day, Samsung brought in Clifton Forlines, a software designer who had written applications for the DiamondTouch table which had been used as evidence against Apple during Monday´s session.

Samsung brought in the DiamondTouch table to prove that similar technology to Apple´s multi-touch and pinch-to-zoom functionality had existed before the iPhone. Yesterday, Forlines made the case that he had written applications which allowed users to zoom in and out of images in the same way the iPhone now allows users to zoom into images and maps.

Upon cross-examination, Apple argued that the technology underneath the DiamondTouch table is much different from Apples, saying the applications work in a very different way.